Comparative study of piezoelectric energy harvesters based on polycrystalline PZT and single-crystalline PMN-PT materials

The piezoelectric energy harvester for supplying power to low-power electronic devices, especially low-power wireless sensor node has been studied and received more attraction over the past decade. In order to simplify installation and obtain the sufficient power for systems, the harvester possessing simple structure with highest output power is highly required. The aim of this study is to design and compare the characteristic and performance of piezoelectric polycrystalline PZT and single-crystalline PMN-PT energy harvesters based on unimorph configuration. By utilizing ANSYS^® for finite element analysis (FEA), the numerical model of composite piezoelectric unimorph generators with proof mass exciting at resonant frequency 150 Hz are designed and then fabricated. For the energy harvesting experiment, the prototypes of harvesters are mounted to the electromagnetic shaker and inputted the vibration with vary frequencies and accelerations. As the results, the piezoelectric single-crystalline PMN-PT unimorph energy harvester has the higher energy density which is 352.85 J/gm³, while the piezoelectric polycrystalline PZT unimorph energy harvester has 8.44 J/gm₃.